Merry Christmas!




Well weve been at my parents all day so we werent able make a post earlier. Here are some candid shots of the day.

Jim




20 Months or years?

Well today our little munchkin in 20 months old 4 more till 2 years going on 4 i think. She is such a awesome blessing to us. She is talking NON STOP ( no comments :) and loves to do everything she can without asking "hewp peas". And what fun it is to be out with all our friends around here and realizing that the parental teaching goes both ways! We ask them for "hewp peas" or "waash". And of course what would a post be without some candid shots of the little one!










Notice the good "Cheeese" in every picture. Doesn't matter just point the camera at her and click.... Cheeese....
We love you Peanut!
Mommy and Daddy.

Well HE did it again.

I got a call this afternoon wondering how life was and all that, One of those nice chatty phone calls from loved ones back home. Well I mentioned the Car thing and they IMMEDIATELY they wanted to know how much it would cost to get it fixed. So I found out and they are going to cover the cost of repairs!

Our God is so Good!
Jim

The Car Woes

Well its happened again...
An there it sits.. I went to the doctors today and on my trip the Cars serpentine belt ( fan belt) broke. It broke because the water pump froze (its been going bad). The reason I am letting you all know is merely so you will pray. We are in the same circumstances as last time, We are not sure whether or not to fix it or replace it. As it stands we don't have the capability to do either. All that to say, will you please pray with us as we seek the Lord in the need of our transportation. We know that God is faithful and we know that He knows what we need and what He is going to do.

Thank you all for your prayers and we will keep you updated.
Jim, Joy, and Arika

Feliz Complanos!


This is a picture of our Language helper and classmate, Key Zu! She is from Chihuahua, Mexico.
One day for a culture even we had a birthday party! It was a lot of fun! We got to play pin the tail on the donkey, play a game sorta like bingo, and eat cake!
I (Joy) got to be the birthday girl. I got to find out first hand what it is like to be the birthday girl!
When you are done blowing out the candles on the cake all the kids chant or sing a song telling you to BITE the cake, literally the actual cake. Then they all push your face into the cake! So needless to say I found that out the fun way. We had a totally blast.
Key Zu is a very fun language helper and friend.
We love you Key Zu.
Joy

I am a Slacker!

I know I know... I need to get on the ball and keep you all posted as to the jabber that is our lives. Now that we are in our "Live CLA" , I only have 1.5 hours of PTC ( practical training class, or Work detail for the old school NTMer's) each day instead of 3.5 . I wanted to share with you what I have been getting to do! I was approached by my old neighbor Joan, She asked if I would be interested in helping in the Academy with the 5th and 6th grade class. She said "she has a really big class" and she needed help grading and helping with various other things from 8:30 to 10:00. So I said i would try it (very nervous about the "big" class thing, not thinking that there are 50 kind in ALL of the school). You see to me growing up in the public school system a "really big class" is 30+ kids. Thats why i was nervous. But it turns out there were a whole 7! Not to mention they are the 7 greatest kids on the campus! ( thats my biased opinion!) So here they are.


Hard at work!

Elijah, Kara, Mariah, Nathan (5th Grade)
Micheal, Micheal, and Titus (6th Grade)
And Mrs. Siddall!

Have you gotten the Idea that I LOVE my new PTC?


Jim

How long has it been?

Just thought I'd give ya a cute picture!
I'll try and post some more later!

I've heard from a few of you that it seems like forever since we made our last post! It sure seems like it! We are in the middle of our Live CLA (Culture & Language Acquisition) Practicum. This is the time that we get to put into practice what we have been learning since we got here a year and a half ago. We have a session for 2 hours everyday Mon - Fri with our language helper, who happens to be one of our classmates as well. She is From Mexico! We have a lot of fun. But it is also a lot of work to plan for our sessions, file them in a program called CLAWARE, and also review them. Jim puts in about an 8 our day and mine is usually about a 4-6 hour day. We also have Arika during this time, except during our session and about other our of the day. One of the other moms and I switch back and for with the girls! So we have been extremely busy!
We are doing well and are enjoying this opportunity! We thank you all for your prayers and for being patient with us as it took us a while to make a post!
Joy for the 3 of us!

A Weekend Away.. And a Wedding.. And Sharing

Well we got to have a weekend away from the 2nd year madness. It was not really relaxing but it was really fun! We Stayed at my Grandma and Grandpa Holly's house, It was great to get to see them for at least a little while and share their great grandaughter with them. Saturday morning we got Arika a Snow outfit that so she can stay warm this winter (Hopefully playing with her cousins on daddy's side at Christmas!). We then met up with Wes and Jodi at Tim Hortons none the less! It was Wes's Birthday so they were with there friends Beth and Andy (Beth is one of our more regular readers HI BETH!!). That after noon We had the honor of going to my Cousin Josh's Wedding to Danielle Pierce. Congrats Guys!

My Parents where there aswell so they had a chance to get to hang out with their grandaughter! They never really want to see me anymore.. ya know... On Sunday we have the oppertunity to visit Grace Bible Church, a church that has set up a "special fund" for us to be able to give supporters a tax recipet until we are in NTM, we where able to share a little on whats going on in our lives today and Thank them. This is the Church that paid our Hospital Bill last year for Arika. We again Appreciate SO much that they are and were willing to pray and trust God on our behalf!

Happy Birthday WES and NOAH (Jims Nephew!)

TRICK or TREAT?


Last night was a blast Arika was too cute!
We were able to just go around on campus here to about 25 houses.

Arika was totally amazed that she could knock on a door and they would give her Candy or goodies!! At first she wasn't sure, especially when they were in costume , but then they would ask her if she wanted candy and she was right there ready to grab it ( a little scary).
So can you tell what Arika is dressed as? If you would like to guess what she is, you can leave your guesses as a comment.

Arika also learned her first trick!
She learned how to squirt a water bottle!
Her is some video!
Enjoy!
Love you all,
Joy



Happy Birthday!


Today is my sister Tina's birthday. Tina one one of my best friends. Growing up she was a wonderful older sister. (Most of the Time...hehe). (Sorry, I can't think of any stories right now.)We have a lot of wonderful, fun Memories. Tina, thank you for taking the time to be a wonderful sister! I miss you so much! I hope your day as a very Happy Birhtday for you.
Love,
Joy Marie

Sleepy Head

Our Little munchkin was a sleepy head today!
She has only done this a few times, but it is so much fun to watch!
We hope you enjoy!
Love Jim and Joy



Thanksgiving

Well for those of you who don't know the Weekend of Oct 9th is Canadian Thanksgiving. Jim's parents decided to come and visit. We had a great time just being together. Arika especially loved it just for all the attention! Heres a glimse of our weekend.






Jim

God is so good!


Yesterday my dad went in to have surgery on his voice for a temporay fix. They are hoping that this procedure will work until his voice kicks back in permenatly. Insurance kicked in and is payin for the surgery. I thank the Lord for this. The procedure went well. He is not able to talk for 48 hours and has to take it easy and not talk a lot or loud for about a week. Thank you all for your prayers. He is very excited to be able to talk again!
We love you all.
Dad, I love you and I'm excited that you'll have your voice back!
Joy

SHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!



Don't tell, Mommy and Daddy that I snuck out so I could get all my fans a update!! HeHe. I wanted you to hear from me. I'm almost one and a haf. I think mommy and daddy have a hard time keeping up with me, (but don't tell them! Hehe!) I'm always on the go. I'm getting very big. I am now in a size 6 shew, and wear size 18 month pants, and 24 -2T dresses and shirts. I don't get to go outside and play as much as I would like to, cause mommy keeps saying that it is too cold out. Whatever that meens. The trees are all different colors now. Well, I better go before I get caught.
All my love,
ARIKA ;-)

Ladies Day Out!



This is Kay Zue and Briell, they are in my class for phonetics. They are good encouragers.


I had a blast on Saturday. We had a ladies day out. We went and saw some falls in the local area, and went on a hike for about 20 min to a place called old Baldie! I had a fun time taking pictures! (I think I found a new hobbie! It is a lot of fun and relaxing.) I was watching a couple of the other ladies and getting ideas of what to take! It was a beautiful day! As you can see in some of the pictures, the leaves are already starting to change. Enjoy the pics.
Joy

A Tribute

This is a Tribute to my Grandpa Kibbey. He passed away in the Spring of '02

Grandpa's Favorite thing to eat was Corn on the Cob. (well any corn for that matter)
His favorite saying was "the only thing better that corn is, MORE CORN!"
I can hear his Great laugh now Ha hahahahaha.

Jim

Our Big Girl!

When we got back to our house here in Canada after summer break, we decided to take the "crib" and turn it into a "toddler" bed. (Don't worry it was convertable, I didnt make any adjustments) Since then every night in our new house Our Big Girl has slept in her Big Girl bed. To our amazement she hasn't fallen out but once, the second night. We did put a rolled up quilt next to the opening so she has something kind of keeping her in. It blows my mind to look at how big she is getting, Next thing I know some boy will want to have a "conversation" with me. Ahh, what happened to time (did it speed up for you to?). Well any way the post is all about our Big Girl so on to the next topic.


She has gotten so big that she needed hair cut number 2! One of the new students Erika came and cut Arika's hair for us. She did a great job and kept Arika on here lap the whole time. What a blessing to be able to have others in the Body of Christ who can meet needs. God is SO Good!
Thanks Erika!

My Big Girl!

Jim

Phonetics 501

Classes begain yesterday. We jumped right in and started learn lots of new sounds and the phonetic symbol that goes with it. Also we learn about how we, and every other language in the world use the same mouth (essentially) to make different tones and sounds thus making our languages diverse. What a great God we serve in that when He confused the languages he still made a way that we can learn in order to reach those who are lost in a Christless eternity. We also learned about all the different points in our mouths that we use to make these different sounds. Here is a study sheet, your test will be given on friday.
This is a little different than the one we got in class but it will do the trick.

Jim for the three of us.

A new Look

Well I just wanted to shake things up a bit and make the blog a little different
Hope you like it. More to come on our first week in class (orientation) and this up coming first week in Phonetics.

Jim

Video Tour of JungleCamp as pormised...

Well its only a month and a half late but here it is the JC virtual tour.





Jim

A weekend at the Races!

I had the oppertunity to go to Varney Motor Speedway this past Saturday. I went with Matt (our former neighbor) and Jake one of our classmates, John and Nathan Meyers and The VanderMulens Guys. I had a blast! It is just a small 1/4 mile paved oval track about 10 min. from the campus. Weve been talking about going since last semester and finally we made it reality. It was the Normal hometome races with all the street stock and modified race cars except one thing... They have what they call trains. I've never seen this but I had to get some Video for you. They take 3 cars and chain them together to race around the track. The kicker is that the Front one has the motor and steering, the center can steer and the rear on has only brakes and steering. And this is what you get...





Jim

Ah, a day at the Beach!

Wednesday, we took the day to go to lake Huron and enjoy the Beach. We had a GREAT time! Arika loves the water. The wave's would come in and she would run out. It was so funny. We spent the whole day driving around looking at houses and playing on the beach. We got some pictures, though they don't give you the real beauty of the beach.





And to top it all off we found the house we want to retiere in, It only costs $885,000 on the lake! What a steal! As soon as we find $885,000 we will let you know and you can come visit! Sound good? Here it is
And heres the view!


In our dreams
Jim for the 3 of us...

A Telephone?

As most of you know by now we have been moved to a new home on Campus. It is a LOT farther from the community phone than where we were before. We got a Phone number that you can call and it will ring here in Canada. Now you wondering why I said that. Well the number is a US telephone number based in Michigan. The funny part is it will ring here in Canada on our Computer. But it is in NO way a out of Country phone number. I know this is a lot of word to discribe it but i want to make sure that everyone knows they can call us WITHOUT any other charges besides normal state to state long-distance. The number is (517) 639-0345. Again if you want to connect with us now you can call us on this number and we will get the call in Canada...

Isn't Technology Cool!

Jim

(517) 639-0345

About Time for a new post don't ya think!

Well It has been a short but fun summer for us. We spent 2.5 weeks in Michigan with Joy's Sister Jodi and her Husband Wes. It was a great time, We got to spend time with both sides of My Family as well as time with Wes and Jodi. Joy's Birthday was the 16th of July and She decided to get her hair cut What do you think?











I like it! Anyway our time away... We went swimming




Camping with one of Joy's Roomates from Bible School.



And Just spent time with the Fam!



Thanks for your Prays and Support over the Summer, we will keep you posted on the happenings of our next year here at NTMC. Including a Video Tour of our Jungle Camp house and even Our NEW house on Campus. Its huge! And very comfy.

Jim 4 us all
(No that is not the number in our family its just for fun DAD! :-)

Fun with the Fam!


Hey Everybody,
Sorry it's been so long since we made a post. We have been having a wonderful time with friends and family! We arrived back in Jackson on Friday the 21st. Then left on Sat for Jim's Grandparents to spend some time with the family! Most of the time was spent at the park for the memorial softball tournament for Jim's cousing Ronnie who passed away 3 years ago. Arika loved being outside all day! As you can see!! She enjoyed her time with Great Grandpa and Grandma!
Here are some pictures for you!We've also enjoyed our time with some friends!
Joy for the 3 of us.